ENMU hopes to find coach, AD by July 1

Later this summer, Eastern New Mexico University expects to have a new athletic director and men’s basketball coach.

But school officials aren’t married to any idea the athletic director must precede the coach he or she will oversee.

“In a perfect world, that’s what we like,” ENMU President Steven
Gamble said. “There could be reasons the athletic director search ends
up taking longer. But our goal is to have an athletic director that can
talk with the candidates.”

History professor Don Elder heads the committee to replace Shawn
Scanlan, who was let go after nine seasons as Greyhound basketball
coach.

The school aims to get both positions filled by July 1, the date
Maguire will step down as athletic director. But it’s not a drop-dead
date, Smith said, and he said his committee is more focused on a
“prudent, well thought out” search.

“I’m optimistic we will have one here this summer,” Smith said, “but whether it’s July 1, who knows?”

Smith said he is informing athletic director candidates of the
basketball vacancy, and that they may or may not have a role in filling
it depending on when they are hired.

Gamble said both committees have received about 70 applications, and
will get to a list of 12-15 semifinalists for telephone interviews. A
final group of three to five candidates will be brought in for campus
tours and interviews.

“Ideally, it would be nice to have three people that stand out above
the rest, that you can bring for on-campus interviews,” Gamble said.
“Sometimes, it’s not that defined. You’ll have four or five who are
relatively equal on paper.”

Neither Elder nor Smith discussed specific candidates, but said a
few candidates have local connections. Smith said candidates with local
connections aren’t so much tied to ENMU as they are to Clovis, Portales
or other schools in Lone Star Conference.

The university expects to pay the next athletic director in the low
$80,000 range, Gamble said. That’s less than the $91,000 Maguire is
making in his final year as athletic director, but Gamble said
Maguire’s salary is higher because of his 21 years of employment at
ENMU and five years serving as both athletic director and volleyball
coach. Gamble said Maguire will continue at the university in a role
that’s half teaching, half fund-raising.

The basketball coach position will pay in the mid-$60,000 to
mid-$70,000 range, plus profits from the university’s summer basketball
camp. Scanlan drew approximately $72,000 before camp money was added,
Gamble said.

Scanlan is still under contract with the university through May, and
assistant coach Joe Griffin is running the program in the interim.

Elder said basketball coach candidates have ranged from as far as
Alaska and Florida, and experience ranges from Division I to NAIA to
high school.

“We value all coaching experience,” Elder said, “but the ones that
involve scholarships are the ones (where) we place a slightly higher
value. It’s not a dealbreaker by any stretch of the imagination, but
it’s certainly a positive.”